Water refill stations installed

Wednesday 9 August, 2017

In its newest sustainability measure, Tamworth Regional Council will install three water refill stations around the Tamworth CBD this month.

The stations will be installed in various locations around the Tamworth CBD in a bid to encourage residents to reduce single use drink bottles.

Tamworth Regional Council Sustainability Coordinator Tracey Carr said the project is as much a litter reduction initiative as it is a community wellbeing project.

“The project aims to discourage use of single use drink bottles by making it easy for residents and visitors to access quality drinking water within the Tamworth CBD. By reducing the amount of litter that single use drink bottles can attribute too, we are keeping our parks and CBD cleaner.

“Additionally, the initiative has obvious health benefits by providing residents and visitors with easy access to a free supply of quality drinking water,” added Ms Carr.

The project has been given the tick of approval from the Heart Foundation who believe it’s a great step towards increasing the consumption of water.

Heart Foundation Regional Health Promotion Coordinator (New England), Penny Milson said “The Heart Foundation is strongly in support of the installation of water refill stations and drinking fountains in the Tamworth CBD.

“From a health perspective, this is an excellent step in the right direction. The overconsumption of sugar sweetened beverages like soft drinks and energy drinks, particularly by teenagers is contributing to obesity in our community.

“The NSW Health ‘Make Healthy Normal’ campaign has one of its recommendations to ‘make water your drink of choice’ because it contains zero kilojoules and people are being encouraged to buy a water bottle and carry it around to top it up. These new facility will assist our community and visitors to make a healthier choice.”

The installation commenced this week at the Bourke Street end of Peel Street, with a further two stations to be installed in Peel Street and Bicentennial Park. The units are designed to be robust, vandal resistant and are built to ensure the elements.